Norway tops gender equality index, Malta 83rd

Emma Xerri

Nov 13th 2008, 15:05

@J. Schembri. Having worked in various sectors in Malta, I can tell you that there is both a Glass ceiling and a Pink Ghetto.

Many years I tolled for a secretary's salary while my work was presented by my Managers as their own. Male recruits whom I had to train were promoted at much higher salary, usually using the trick of giving them an important title to justify their inflated salary and benefits.

Unless the 'value of work' is included when calculating salaries and benefits, I am afraid women will always remain in "pink ghettos" that is jobs that are traditionally perceived as women's work and therefore undervalued/underpaid.

Once, after a number of years working without a salary raise, I plucked up the courage to ask my boss for a raise. The shocking answer I got from him was, "why, an attractive woman like you, should have a sugar-daddy" , implying that I should prostitute myself if my salary was not good enough.

Emma Xerri

Nov 13th 2008, 14:27

@J. Farrugia. The high suicide rate in Norway and other Nordic countries has no correlation to women's equality. It is mostly caused by the long grey winters and lack of sunshine. It is called SAD syndrome.

Corinne Vella

Nov 13th 2008, 10:30

Joseph Schembri: Part of the answer you need is in your observation that most of the comments here were posted by men.

Joseph Schembri

Nov 12th 2008, 22:23

The one area of the study I would like to address is the Economic one. My question is directed to the women of Malta; is there a glass ceiling holding you back or is there a general lack of interest in corporate climbing amongst the Maltese women ? I'd like to hear from some women not just men.

Joseph A Borg

Nov 12th 2008, 20:25

Nordic countries have invested a lot in childcare so women are comfortable planning a career with children. On the other hand Nordic countries have a higher tax burden than us, something that many alpha males in the local population would find annoying, even if it means that their family is loosing a wage earner.

May I pile on Mr J Farrugia: I hope you sent that message without pondering what you actually wrote. Indeed your lack of reply seems to indicate as much.

Kevin Zammit

Nov 12th 2008, 19:11

How daft is that? Armenia, Suriname,Bolivia and Malawi!!! These countries barely have human rights to speak of let alone equality for women!

Statistics gone mad again. I hope this does not start a knee jerk reaction so as to look good such as positive discrimination.

All that will do is pile up more cost on business and instill an already bad enough "not my fault" attitude.

There are cultural differences that distort these stats. As far as I know women in Malta get paid as much as men do which is not the case for even countries like Canada. So what if they have legislation to protect women? A businees can make it an unoficial policy not to hire women for certain posts, women take too much paid vacation when they have kids ...

From where I am standing nothing is stopping maltese women from advancing their careers if they chose to. It is a question of attitudes, historical issues etc. ... is the church in malta keen to see women have careers? :)

I know women who were making more money than than their spouse until they decided their children were more important but that was purely their decision.

V Farrugia

Nov 12th 2008, 18:20

While the NCW is doing the best job it can, I hate to see so many different groups defending different parts of the same society that we live in. We have groups for women's rights, for men's right, for elderly rights, for children's rights, for disabled rights and so on. Wouldn't it make more sense if all these groups were to unite into a SINGLE human rights group? Male, female, elderly or minor or disabled, we're all humans. If a single group has a right that is being denied, it affects the other groups as well.

Let's face it, half of Malta is either Male or Female, we all started as children, grew up to be adult men and women and hopefully will become elderly. Some of us might be disabled, but those people are still men or women, of whatever age. A person could be either sex, yet disabled and a minor too. It's worth having a single, powerful group defending his rights, rather than 3 disparate ones.

So how about all the groups uniting for their respective rights? There is strength in unity. And less cacophony of having multiple groups all clamouring for essentially the same things.

C. Scerri

Nov 12th 2008, 17:29

If you had to take a look at actual report one would notice we have full equality in the education field and health (in both cases their is a small higher proportion of females to males), their is almost equality in wage part but where we score very low (and thus affects our ranking - all the four ares had equal weighting) is in the legislators and political empowerment. In the last item - scoring just 0.126 the main areas are:
1. Women in parliament
2. Women in ministerial positions
3. Number of years with a female head of state

I cannot see how legislation or government intervention can convince people to vote in more women, whilst all the females on the gov side have been given ministerial positions.

So can Tim Ripard please indicate how divorce can improve on these statistics - the actual ones listed in the report i.e. labour force participation, and parliament representations?

J Fenech

Nov 12th 2008, 17:06

"As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power...." Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica,Q92, art. 1, Reply Obj. 1 ... words of wisdom from one of the early role models of the catholic church ... Yes, of course there is a correlation but it will be categorically denied by Joe Brainwashed and Charlie Faithful

Corinne Vella

Nov 12th 2008, 16:56

Robert Borg: When a previous edition of this report was issued, it prompted irate letters from readers eager to defend a woman's place in the home and the Times ran a leader criticising the report for not placing an economic value on the work women do at home.

A cultural problem cannot be solved by a commission alone.

Tim Ripard

Nov 12th 2008, 16:43

The lack of divorce militates against women ever achieving equality, as the statistics clearly bear out. This is a case where the excessive influence of Catholicism causes social harm.
'Let the women be silent in the churches for they are not allowed to speak. Instead they must, as the Law says, be in subordination. If they wish to learn something, let them inquire of their own husbands at home...' (I Corinthians 13: 34-35). Now how's that for promoting equality!

A. Saliba

Nov 12th 2008, 16:35

What are we to expect in a staunch catholic country? And don't tell me there's no correlation: Nordic countries are amongst the most secularist nations.

Stefan Gauci Scicluna

Nov 12th 2008, 16:35

First of all we should take into account that different countries' ranking depends on selected criteria. However, they can give us some indication. From this position, we can say that the Maltese government should give more incentives to improve labour flexibility in such a way that reflects meritocracy. It's not a matter of gender but of merit. The reasoning should be that if a person can work, she/he should be provided an environment that promotes work. Child care centres are just the beginning of a whole change that we should make as a EU member state.

michael fenech

Nov 12th 2008, 16:33

Very well said Mr. Farrugia.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.

KCaruana

Nov 12th 2008, 16:24

Wow JFarrugia - those are very mature statements that are completely to the point (kindly note the sarcasm!). Suicide rates are not directly related to gender or gender discrepancies but rather to a number of factors, amongst which environmental ones are not negligible.
The take home message from that index is that not only are we amongst the last countries in this index of gender equality but that we actually managed to worsen the gender gap as compared to our previous placing!!!
Where is the government and commitees that are to promote and ensure gender equality???
Women are often only encouraged to stay at home and be subservient to their husbands! Medieval attitude to say the least!

J Farrugia

Nov 12th 2008, 16:00

We dont care what Norway tops up. We only know the high amount of suicides that exist in Norway and other nordic countries. It's better for Malta to be as last as possible in this matter. We can teach them something which they cant.

Robert Borg

Nov 12th 2008, 15:43

I guess the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality is not doing a sterling job. It just exists as another of those commission...